


oh, these frozen nights

by KeyDog (BannedBloodOranges)



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: 30 Minute Fic, Christmas, Domestic, Drabble, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Family, Fluff, Humour, Implied Background Kirk/Uhura/Scotty, M/M, Marriage, Multi, Post Movie, Post Series, Soppy, Very Gentle Angst, tree decorating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-18 02:33:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21770341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BannedBloodOranges/pseuds/KeyDog
Summary: Jim doesn't care about his old memories; he only wants the ones with her in it.Jim and Nyota share their first Christmas on Earth together.
Relationships: Ben Sulu/Hikaru Sulu, Gaila/Jaylah (Star Trek), James T. Kirk/Nyota Uhura, Leonard "Bones" McCoy/Spock
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	oh, these frozen nights

**Author's Note:**

> Non-profit fun only.
> 
> Merry Christmas everyone!

_In these frozen and silent nights_

_Sometimes in a dream you appear_

_Outside under the purple sky_

_Oh, I miss you_

_2000 Miles,_ The Pretenders

* * *

It's the first Christmas they've shared where the air is sick with cold and white mountains from each window, over the hills to the frozen lakes of the hometown where he was always a stranger. 

They'll go to Kenya next Christmas, to sample Nyota's bright family and bright food, to the house decorated in ribbons and paper. But this is their first Christmas alone on earth, and Nyota wanted to see the stretches of snow, feel the clutching chill like on vintage cards.

He doesn't see his brother, and the less said about his mom, the better, so it's just him and Ny and the farmhouse he has rented in the sticks, and Nugget cooing in his discarded scarf (he has no legs, but boy does that tribble get around.)

Past Christmases has been spent on dark ships, swapped greetings as overworked lieutenants alternated between their shifts, tinsel hung haphazardly in the recreation room, secret drinks at midnight with Bones and Scotty and waiting for his bed to dip with the warmth of Nyota after their hours apart, slow tired sex and a present he would leave wrapped under her pillow as she slept.

Christmas was seeing stars as Christmas Lights, Bones accidentally getting Spock drunk on chocolate that one time and Jim finding the sickbay in shambles (and yes, they haven't talked about that since, nor how Spock had seriously come to appreciate the novelty of mistletoe.)

But now, they're on earth. It's just Jim and Nyota and Nugget and the wind heaving high against the windows and a stray cat nestled in their Christmas tree. 

"How did he get in there?" She's buried in one of his old Hanukkah sweaters, bagging down to her knees. She clinks her mug between her teeth, steamed milk staining her upper lip. At this time of year she's always tender with him, careful, all too aware of his family, the spikes of memory beneath the cheer.

Sometimes he wonders where she even came from, and why she ever loved him in the first place. No bastard can ever be that lucky.

He doesn't care about his old memories; he only wants the ones with her in it. 

"They get everywhere," Jim offers as a way of explanation, lazy smile put firmly in place. He hangs the last bauble, sweeping the wood dust from his palms that had collected in the bottom of the decoration box. The tree is a mishmash of Nyota's Kenyan colours, faded red and gold glitz scooped from Jim's old memorabilia, fat gaudy glass peaches donated by Bones and even the customary Starfleet insignia decorations handed over, with relief, by Spock. Chekov, who had visited a few days previous with his bread roll eared alien and second spawn of babies had gifted Jim an antique array of glass blown Russian dolls that Ny loved and Jim had blanched at. Scotty's offering was a felt Scottish Terrier in tartan colours whilst Sulu had settled on a tasteful tree topper his daughter had picked out at a local craft market.

The angel - if one can call it that - has pride of place on their fake silver birch tree, even if said stray cat is trying to nibble at her feet. 

"Hey!" Nyota gently ushers it away. He yawns, bored, batting at her ponytail on his way down the tree. He decides to mount the sofa instead, kneading the faded couch cushions with his claws. 

Jim whistles.

"We're keeping him."

"I don't think so."

"C'mon, Ny. It's Christmas." He kisses the froth from her lips. The cat bats at Nugget, who emits a shrieking Klingon screech in response and sends the animal yowling into the kitchen. 

"I think me and Nugget have an accord," Nyota whispers, slipping her arms around him. Her emerging bump slides up against his t-shirt and Jim grins, nuzzling against her neck, scenting his shampoo on her hair. God, somethings never changed. 

"Hm." He breathes into her ear. "What to make another one?"

"Jim!" She catches his chin firmly. Her brows curve over her dark, determined eyes. "One at a time, okay?"

"Okay." Jim kisses her cheek, her chin, her laughing mouth. He tugs at the sweater, pulling it over her head. She wiggles out, bemused. "Doesn't suit you, that. I think it looks better on the floor."

"I think you look better on the floor," She shoots back, pushing him firmly back onto the couch. "But because this babe is currently killing my back, the couch will do."

"Oh, I completely understand."

She crawls up onto his lap, scratching her nails down the first trace of grey on his beard. He kisses her, letting his hands fall on her hips, and he's all too keen to encourage that lovely friction as the kindling fire roars to life beneath the mantel. It's a beautiful sight, Nyota with the rosy firelight rubying her skin, her head back and her throat bare, as their tree winks and glistens from the corner.

* * *

On Christmas Eve Scotty videos in from San Francisco, Gaila and Jaylah swamped on the sofa with Porthos the 3rd and Keenser mixing drinks in the background. They all toast the camera and Scotty even drunkenly sings a carol in Gaelic and Nyota translates for Jim until she's hungover with laughter and unable to continue. 

Spock and McCoy ring in the evening, a red sky blazing behind them and Bones in his boxes, the first hint of grey touching the corners of his hair with a brandy in his hand. He asks Nyota long, searching questions about whether she is consuming alcohol or raw eggs and _goddamit Jim if you are letting her carry anything_ and if whether she has noticed any irregularities in her bowel movements and Jim has to bite in with a _goddamn it, Bones_ until Spock finally wanders in, looking more like his father then ever in his Ambassador robes, meeting Bones's fingers in a kiss. He offers them quiet seasonal greetings until Bones grumbles and pulls him back into the camera, mumbling about Scrooge and Humbug and Spock recants with _I do not believe I have any attachment to Dickensian literature, Leonard_ and Jim laughs, says they've got some cooking to do and wishes them all the best, and Nyota finally concludes that yes, she's fine, yes, she's taking all her vitamins and yes she's not doing any kind of mad activity and yes, Jim is being reasonably helpful, and -

Bones cuts in that if they are attempting _any_ sexual activity they must take care, there are some positions which are _completely_ off the damn charts and he can send over a pamphlet if they -

With a unison of "Happy Christmas!" they scramble to close the video chat.

The last thing they catch is Spock's calm _Really, Leonard?_

* * *

Admiral Kirk is forty-four years old. It's their first Christmas on earth in the place of Admiral Jim's birth, the first Christmas with his wife Admiral Uhura, the first Christmas with her pregnant with their first child, and the first Christmas of the unusually long-lived Nugget still snuggled in his scarf. 

Doctor McCoy and Ambassador Spock reside on New Vulcan, making strides forward in repopulation. They have been bonded for fifteen years, and have not been without the other for a single day since.

Jaylah and Gaila married five years ago. No one knows how they make it work, but they do, somehow, with an army of cats and Jaylah as Scotty's equal in the engineering division of the new Starships.

Sulu and Ben are as happy as they've ever been, with a daughter looking forward to her own future among the stars.

Chekov is head of Navigation at Starfleet with award-winning seminars. He also navigates the wife he adores and his seventeen children. 

As for Scotty, well, he and Keenser oversee the outfitting of each and every new ship that leaves the dock. His heart belongs to the Enterprise, or so he claims, and sometimes, it belongs to them too, in the months when he is earthbound.

They've had Christmases before, just not like this.

* * *

On Christmas Eve, he leaves a present under the pillow of Nyota's sleeping head. That morning they wake before dawn and creep outside to watch the stars. After all this time, it's still their Christmas lights, and soon, as Jim senses his daughter's heartbeat along Nyota's, he knows they will return one day, and he will show her the starlight bred in her veins.

But as of now, they have today, as the sun creeps over the sparkling snow and shines in the onyx of Nyota's eye.

He kisses her forehead.

Their first Christmas.

The memory he'll be sure to keep.

* * *

_Diamonds in the snow sparkle_

_Our hearts were singing_

_It felt like Christmas time_


End file.
